NEDbeads

1.21.2015

Thanks so much to everyone for commenting and hopping around on the blogs for Karen Williams' most excellent Explorations in Freeform Peyote book! My pups and I sat down with some scraps of paper this morning, and Teddy picked Mary Harding as the winner of my soup giveaway! Mary, send me an email and let me know your mailing address. :)

Cheers, all - I hope you have a great time free forming with your new book, and have a grand day! I'm leaving you with an image of a tag that I created for my new adventure this year - I'm taking an art course that lasts the whole year, on mixed media!! The course is called Life Book, and if you google, you will see that it's a FABULOUS experience - I'm only three weeks in, and having a blast. Paints, papers, pens, pencils, here I come!!

1.17.2015

And so does this book by Karen Williams, Explorations in Freeform Peyote Beading! Karen asked me to take part in the book, an honor and a joy! Everyone who knows me, knows that I adore freeform work. Karen has given some of us in the book a chance to blow our own whistles and to share some of the terrific work you can find in there, here on this Book Blogging Tour. Please read through my post, because there is info at the end about two giveaways, in case you're interested... ;)

Let me tell you, Explorations is totally wonderful! And perfect for those of you who have been hesitant to try your hand at freeform, but really love the look. Karen has created an album of work and instruction that is fabulous on the eyes, easy to follow and just SO inspiring! As a teaser of what you would have in store if you go and buy the book, here's an excerpt from Karen's blog:

"All told, Exploration's 174 pages includes images of ninety three pieces by twenty two artists (including myself) from three continents and four countries. Detailed photo essays give a closer look at the construction and/or design process for twenty nine of the pieces, ranging from earrings and brooches to bracelets, necklaces, beaded bottles and even three-dimensional beaded fish."

And some mind blowing work from artists included in here, starting with Karen herself, who explains how she created this gorgeous Poppy Brooch in one of my favorite chapters:

Karen Williams - Poppy Hat Brooch

And showcasing this stunning peyote draped bottle by Cortney Phillips (and she has another one in there, too!);

Cortney Williams - Untitled

And this most awesome ring by Lisa Jones;

Lisa Jones - Emerald City Ring

And this beauty of a necklace by the wonderful Saturday Sequins;

Sarah Meadows - Ocean

And, one of my personal favorites (this color combination just speaks to me) from Wendy Hatton, a necklace and earring set that I would just die for;

Wendy Hatton - Homage to Amphritite

My piece in the book is one of my beaded rocks (which I called Froggie Knoll), where Karen let me explain how I wrap these little stones and turn them into mini landscapes. :)

After seeing all that, you MUST want to check out more!! There are eight chances available to be part of Karen's Giveaway from this blog tour - make sure to check out the rules and what the fabulous prizes are on her post HERE! :) Cynthia Machata of Antiquity Travelers has already made her post, so don't forget to hop there, too. Should you now want your own copy of this marvel, you can buy one on Amazon, or from Karen herself, and both a Kindle edition and an eBook are in the works for those of you who prefer a digital format.

On my post here, I am going to give away a little bead soup, so that one of you can start your freeform journey right away. Leave me a comment, and I'll put your name in the hat!! I have some lovely little soups just hanging around in my stash... ;)

Thank you so much for this opportunity, Karen, I am so honored to be a part of your fantastic book! (I hope we all manage to turn some beaders into freeformers!!)

12.16.2014

I have a new tutorial out there in my Etsy shop! I'm excited, because this really just flowed for me, and the last one was a bit of a slog. I really like it, and best of all, the friend I named this for likes it, too! Introducing Carol's Bracelet, a pretty and dainty piece which is really wearable:

I haven't taken my Montana/Egyptian blue one off since I made it. ;) I am addicted to them, and have been working on another one; gold this time, I think. I love using the 6mm chatons, they add just the right amount of sparkle, and I like the 2mm pearls because they're fun to work with. The 2mm crystals in the bezels are optional, and easily replaced with a size 11 seed bead. If you'd like a copy of this tutorial, it is available HERE.

A few people have asked if it was possible to use a 39SS 8mm chaton in place of the little 29SS 6mm ones, and so I had to have a try this morning and see how it worked. I thought I would share the results in case anyone else would like to try it that way, too. BOY it is shiny!!!!

Here's what changes in the pattern; You will need to start your bezel with 8 Bs instead of the called for 6 As. From there, use all Bs for Steps 2&3, and of course there will be more repeats around your base circle. In Step 7 you use the same beads called for with the 6mm, again with more repeats. Your crystal round will consist of 8 2mms rather than 6, and you will have a total of 8 picots around. Make the connections as directed, the only change is that you will have three 'free' picots top and bottom rather than two. :)

Because of the change in chaton sizes, you will most likely need to leave off the extra embellished diamond before your clasp. I used Light Bronze #457L, Aqua Shimmer chatons, aqua AB 2mm and 4mm crystals and white pearls for my sample.

Before I go, I just want to remind everyone that my Annual Sale will still be happening this next weekend, as well - you can read more about that in my last blog post HERE. Thanks for reading!

12.05.2014

Hey everyone, here's to hoping you had a fabulous Thanksgiving (if you're in the US) and that you're having a stress free (ha!!) time of it with your holiday preparations.

I am encouraging everyone to please consider giving PDF tutorials as gifts for beady friends this year in the hopes of helping out some of the designers all around Planet Bead who may have to close down the digital download features in their shops due to the VAT changes being made. Please consider buying for a friend, as these tutorials may not be available come the new year. I know I'm hoping to be able to have a bit of a splurge myself on some tutorials out there!

Every year I have a sale in my Etsy shop and it works like this: If you buy a pattern in my shop, you get a free pattern to send to a beady friend for Christmas. Just leave your friend's name and email address (and any message you'd like included with their PDF) in the Notes to Seller section at checkout, and I will email them the pattern of your choice, either the day of purchase or on Christmas Eve, whichever you prefer. My sale runs each weekend (Friday through Sunday) throughout the month of December. Money is always tight this time of year, and a tutorial makes a great gift (especially when shipping is so high nowadays)! Hint - shopping around in your friends' Favorites on Etsy always works. ;)

Please note that this is not a regular Buy One Get One sale - I won't send you a free tutorial if you purchase, but will only send one to a friend as a gift.

(If you aren't already aware and horrified by the VAT business, and want info on it, just Google VATMOSS or VATMESS and you'll be deluged.)

11.25.2014

It's TIME!! I get to show you all the gorgeous that I got from my fellow artists and the humble little charm that I made to swap. I also get to happily urge you to go follow my link to the Auctions on Ebay and ask you to bid as high as you can on any of the charms that are up for sale - it's all going to a really awesome cause. ALL profits from the sales go to Beads of Courage, which provides beads and more importantly, HOPE to children from all over who suffer with cancer of many kinds. To learn more about BOC, please click HERE.

But first a really huge thank you to Jennifer Cameron for setting this up and making it all happen again this year. It's a huge task to get this blog hop/auction/swap together and running smoothly, and Jen is completely awesome. Please make sure to visit her blog when you hop to all the others in my list, and give her some love.

This year's theme for our charms was 'Soar' and it really did challenge me. I had to ask for some help from my fellow participants, who responded readily with some awesome ideas. Such a list!! But the one that stuck out for me (and several others) was the visualization of a floating, soaring, bobbing kite in a blue sky, on a summer's day. I set out to make myself one; I had some help from Diane Fitzgerald's Shaped Beadwork and Beyond book, where she shows how to make a very nice elongated triangle. I added my a smaller triangle on top to get it looking more kite-like. I made them with different colored Delica beads so that there would be a variety, but I think my favorite is (surprise, I know!) the purple one on the upper left. ;)

I did want to have the tail of the kite as part of the design, but it just looked wrong in beads, so I ended up using a piece of sterling chain on each one. I was going to add a little crystal to the ends, but ran out of headpins (of course!), so decided the sparkle would have to be in the middle and sewed a 3mm roses montee with a surround to each kite.

Compared to some of the beautiful work I received in turn, I feel like my kite is kind of hokey, but I also feel like I accomplished what I set out to do, given how cranky my muse was this year.

Onward, to show you the fabulous charms I received! I apologize to my fellow artists for the poor photography - we had a little family upheaval this weekend, and my husband wasn't able to get to his camera, so I was forced to take the photos myself with my little point and shoot. These are all much more amazing than what the pics show!!

This first grouping consists of charms from Renetha Stanziano of LamplightCrafts , Moriah Betterly of Blu Mudd, and Alenka Obid of Pepita. So pretty!! I love the colors in Renetha's Bubbly Bauble, and the birds are most definitely soaring on Moriah's sage green charm! And Alenka's leaf charm... you know how much I love leaves!! There is an open eye on the eye pin and I can see a tiny crystal hanging in that perfect pear shape.

The second set of gorgeous includes charms from Lennis Carrier of Windbent, Monique Urquhart of A Half Baked Notion and Perri Jackson of Shaktipaj Designs. Lennis' kite is so pretty - and so full of movement!! I love her version of the kite tail, and the way the SOAR lettering is moving right along with the rest of the design. Monique's was just too pretty to take off of her card - I must admit now that I haven't removed her charm from last year's card, either - I love the ribbon and the presentation so much. Such a lot of intricate work here, with the bee and the flowers... love. And the lovely hot air balloon that Perri created is so full of color and joy! You can NOT look at this charm and not smile with delight.

My last set of charms has two pics because I just had to show both sides. These were made by Elisabeth Auld of Beads For Busy Gals, Cate vanAlphen of Fulgorine, and Lesley Watt of Thea Elements. Elisabeth's charm is so floaty and lovely - I'm calling it a balloon, even though I haven't seen her reveal post yet, because to me it looks ethereal and ready to soar into the sky at any moment. Cate's charm knocked my socks right off, with the stylized bird flying so freely - and the colors!! That gold is so sparkly and lovely and Bollywood in person!! The feather on the reverse is magnificent. Lesley's double sided kite is fantastic - I'm so jealous, lol! The first photo shows the colors of the BOC campaign, and the reverse in the second photo shows a hot pink background to a really sweet heart.

I love every single one of them!! And I must get myself busy making things with them, they are each inspiring in their own way. Not only because of the obvious beauty and execution, but also because they were made with so much love and care - they have to be on something very special. Thank you so much for my charms!!

Now I urge you to sit down with your favorite cup of whichever beverage makes you happy and comfy cozy, and hop around to all of the other blogs to see the reveals - I can't wait to see what everyone says about their designs! I also have to get going over to the auction myself, because I just KNOW there are more charms there that I GOTTA have!! See you there!

Gah!!! I can't seem to post the complete list of blog links, I have no idea why - PLEASE go to Jennifer Cameron's BLOG for the link list and hop to see everyone else's posts!!

11.16.2014

I have been a terribly absent blogger this year. Lots of reasons, but the largest of which was taking care of my Dad, who has been off and on in the hospital for almost three years. He's home again now, and doing great, and I am hoping to be able to do more posts again, as I used to. Hopefully, at the New Year I will be back to blogging once a month.

I had a looooooong creative block as well as the blogging block, but I am so happy to be able to say that it has finally passed, and I managed to work out a new (although fairly simple) tutorial. I must say, if I hadn't had some really awesome testers for this, it never would have happened - I don't think I've ever sent out a messier, full-of-errors tutorial draft before!! But it's all fixed up now (thank you so much, Michelle and Mary and Valorie!!) and in the shop. It's called Royal Herringbone Ropes, and it includes two necklaces, the basic instructions for a bracelet and a pair of pretty earrings. The first part of the tutorial, the Crowns Rope Necklace, is going to be available to bead retailers from The Beadsmith, and I wanted to pair that rope up with one that I had made previously called Sceptres. Then I had so much fun stitching that I decided to make the bracelet... and then the earrings just sort of happened... ;) Check it out here in my Etsy shop.

I was honored again this year by having a photo published in Sabine Lippert's gallery in her glorious new book, Beadwork Evolutions. If you don't have this book yet, RUN to get yourself a copy!! The projects are just gorgeous and so inspiring. I have included photos below to give you just a little glimpse of the beauty that awaits you in it's pages. Sabine has kits for these projects on her website, TryToBead.

Anastasia Necklace

Bubble Ball Beaded Bead

Round Cube Beaded Bead

Thank you so much for including me, Sabine! Your book is completely fabulous, and I can't wait to make some of these beauties.

Thirdly, I am taking part again this year in the Art Charm Swap, hosted by Jennifer Cameron (for more detailed information, check out Jen's blog here). We all make charms to swap, but each person makes one extra charm that will be sold via auction, with all profits going to Beads Of Courage. Last year, we were able to send $1500 to BOC!! This is especially important and special to me this year, since my Dad was diagnosed with lung cancer, which precipitated his surgery. Beads of Courage is for children, of course, but my Dad's cancer brought this closer to home for me and made me take more time to consider what happens to the kids (and adults as well). If you can, please come to the auction on November 24th and bid as high as you can, and come back here for the reveal blog post on November 25th.

This year's theme was 'soar' and it was a little challenging for me, but I did manage to come up with what I hope is a cute charm. :) I can't wait to see what everyone came up with, but I know already that these charms are going to be awesome and incredible - and perfect for using in your own jewelry, with the great feeling that you're donating to a very worthy cause.

3.14.2014

Well wow, I didn't realize I hadn't blogged since January... oops! I'm sorry to be such an unreliable blogger, but am so grateful for all of my friends who still wander by and pop in to see what I'm up to. It's been a bit of a weird 'end' of winter, with totally psychotic weather patterns here in VT, freezing cold, thawing out and raining with sun, back to freezing cold, and it has resulted in lots of colds and aches and general misery. My Dad ended up with pneumonia and back into the hospital, but is now recovering well in rehab and will hopefully be home again soon; my elderly chow has been having a horrible time with her arthritis and trying to get around, and my husband's joints hurt so much he's hobbling right along with her. Me, I've just managed to get by with sniffles and coughs, so far - cross your fingers for me, please!

I have some upcoming things I'm really happy about - I shall have photos of my work in two new, soon to be published books (yay!!), I'm taking part in Battle of the Beadsmith 2014...

(waiting for partners to be announced now, tap tap tap), I am taking part in the Bead Soup Blog Party 8 (yay! and I have no idea how our hostess, Lori, is managing to keep everything going as bad as she's feeling now with her health, but love and prayers to her and many thanks, too)

... and have sent out soup to my partner, Lisa Knappenberger. I am also really excited that Karen Williams' proposed book on freeform peyote bead weaving was successfully funded on Kickstarter - oh YES!! :) If you didn't get the chance to stop by and help her out with the funding part, I still highly recommend wandering by and checking out her video and getting all excited about the release date, because it's gonna be awesome!! I also got to make a pair of earrings for the beautiful and delightful Marcia DeCoster (yes I DID squee!). I'm not sharing pictures until (if) she does... but she did say she loves them!!

In between all the excitement of these things, I did manage to get a new tutorial out in my shop, called Princess Natalia's Locket. It's super cool and (I hope) super pretty, and lots of fun to make, too. :) The focal piece of the necklace is a working locket created mostly of peyote stitch, wherein you can store a keepsake or a charm, and it hangs from a pretty chain made of right angle weave and herringbone. If you haven't bought the tutorial yet and you gottagetchasome, here's the link to my Etsy shop.

Today has been a good beady day in one way, with a lucky snag of a set of new beads by Caroline Dewison of BlueberriBeads

...and not such a great beady day because I ran out of the size 15 Duracoat silver beads I was using to construct a new Trellis necklace. This rope is bigger than my previous Trellis necklaces, in that I decided to make a CRAW rope for the inner bit rather than a three sided RAW rope, and it increased the girth quite a bit. It also EATS 15s on the outside, it's taking almost twice the amount used for the smaller rope, because you're making four repeats of all of the elements, including the netting all the way around. But I think it looks mega cool with these beautiful lamp work beads by Judith Billing (of Icarus beads). These beads are exquisite - the finished photographs, taken by Sherwood, will no doubt show their glory much better than my feeble attempt here. They look like little galaxies, with shiny milky way stars... *sigh*

I changed up the 'flower' bits at the edges of the rope, too, and added in 2mm Swarovski rounds and omitted the size 15 center to the 'flower' to make it a little more elegant looking for this piece. I'm having fun with it, anyway - I hadn't made a Trellis in ages and forgot how addictive they can be. It's going to be a long wait (even if it's really a short one) for my 15s!!

I have also just been playing, messing around and using colors that made me happy at the time. This little doodad is a hexagon rope with some layers of single strands of embellished beads on top... it looks like a big pile of beads, and won't go anywhere, but it was fun to play with. :)

I spent some time last week making beaded bead eggs by Sharri Moroshok - I LOVE these little guys!!! Totally in love...

Off to see what appears on my bead mat while I'm waiting for those 15s... hope to blog sooner rather than later this next time! (Somebody elbow me...)